494 ‘Se WATCHTOWER. ed to be October 5 (Julian) or September 28 (Gregorian) 537 BCE.—Eza 1:14; 3:16, ™ Here, then, very definitely established, {fs another milestone—the time when the seventy years of desolation of the land of Judah came to an end—about October 1, 537. (Jer. 25:11, 12; 29:10) It is now a simple formula ‘to determine when the seventy years began. One has only to add ‘SeBo, when Aid the neventy years of desolation bess, Seite Ga tay end BROOKLYN, N.Y. 70 to 537 to get 607. So about October 1, 607 BCE, the desolating of the land of Judah and the complete emptying out of its inhabitants was fully accomplished. * The importance of the year 607 B.C.E. in this Biblical chronology will become more apparent in the following article, as we seek an answer to the provocative question, When was Adam created? ‘Tye anwer to what question is rested to the jaro BCE ie WHY ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO HAT about all this talk concern- ing the year 1975? Lively discus- sions, some based on speculation, have Durst into flame during recent months among serious students of the Bible. Their Interest has been kindled by the beliet that 1975 will mark the end of 6,000 years of hhuman history since Adam's creation. The nearness of such an important date indeed fires the imagination and presents unlimit- ed possibilities for discussion, *But walt! How do we know thelr cal- ulations are correct? What basis is there for saying Adam was created nearly 5,998 years ago? Does the one Book that can be implicitly trusted for its truthful historical accuracy, namely, the Inspired Word of Jehovah, the Holy Bible, give support and credence to such a conclusion? Wat has parked ira, Ga SheP rete "In the marginal references of the Protestant Authorized or King James Ver- sion, and in the footnotes of certain edi- tions.of the Catholic Doway version, the date of man’s creation is said to be 4004 BCE. This marginal date, however, is no Part of the inspired text of the Holy Scriptures, since it was first suggested more than fifteen centuries after the last Bible writer died, and was not added to any edition of the Bible until 1701 CE. It is an insertion based upon the conclu- sions of an Irish prelate, the Anglican Archbishop James Ussher (1581-1656). Ussher’s chronology was only one of the many sincere efforts made during the past centuries to determine the time of Adam's count was taken, no less than 140 differ- ent timetables had been published by se- Eh the fate tor Adam's creation as found tn ma Soleo Sei part ene Spare tn from the independe i SeShdy spared i we Eg ee when Se FIis/MegAvaust 15, 1968 in which Adam was created. Since ‘man naturally began to count time with his ‘own beginning, and since man’s most an- cient calendars started each year in the autumn, it 1s reasonable to assume that the first man Adam was created in the fall of the year. Thus, through a careful independent study by dedicated Bible scholars who hhave pursued the subject for a number of years, and who have not blindly followed ‘Some traditional chronological calculations of Christendom, we have arrived at a date for Adam’s creation that is 22 years more distant in the past than Ussher’s figure. ‘This means time is running out two de- cades sooner than traditional chronology antlelpates. * After much of the mathematics and genealogies, really, of what benefit is this information to us today? Is it not all dead history, as uninteresting and profitless as walking through a cemetery copying old dates off tombstones? After all, why should we be any more interested in the date of Adam’s creation than in the birth of King Tut? Well, for one thing, if 4,025 is added to 1,968 (allowing for the lack of a zero year between CE, and BCE) one gets a total of 5,993 years, come this autumn, since Adam's creation, ‘That means, in the fall of the year 1975, a little over seven years from now (and not in 1997 as would be the case if Ussher’s figures were correct), it will be 6,000 years since the creation of Adam, the fa- ther of all mankind! ADAM CREATED AT CLOSE OF “SIXTH DAY" * Are we to assume from this study that the battle of i ‘She WATCHTOWER. 499 will begin by then? Possibly, but we wait to see how closely the seventh thousand- ‘Year period of man’s existence coincides ‘with the sabbathlike thousand-year reign ‘of Christ, If these two periods run par- allel with each other as to the calendar year, it will not be by mere chance or ac- cident but will be according to Jehovah's creation. It may involve only a difference of weeks ‘or months, not years, "In regard to Adam's creation it is ‘g00d to read carefully what the Bible says. ‘Moses in compiling the book of Genesis referred to written records or “histori ‘that predated the Flood. The first of these ‘begins with Genesis 1:1 and ends at Gene- sis 2:4 with the words, “This is the his- tory of the heavens and the earth...” ‘The second historical document begins ‘with Genesis 2:5 and ends with verse two of chapter five. Hence we have two sepa~ rate accounts of creation from slightly ‘ifferent points of view. In the second of ‘these accounts, in Genesis 2:19, the orlgi- nal Hebrew verb translated “was forming” is in the progressive imperfect form. This does not mean that the animals and birds ‘BL What do the rat ewo chapters of Genes eases?